DRS may be a terrible thing for our excitement but then again so was the famous Trulli-trains. Yes we saw some amazing overtaking sometimes but people seem to forget that we also saw the most boring formula one seasons, cause except for those few stunning moments. U could predict the outcome of the sunday race on saturday with 90% accuracy. I could watch all the excitement from those years in a 30 minute or less summary and not miss a single exciting moment.

The problem with formula one since atleast a decade has been that slipstreaming like the old days is close to impossible. The speed difference gained from a proper slipstream is too small. And actually to get close enough to use such a slipstream would mean risking losing traction in corners result in actually losing time instead of gaining. The result was races where people’s best hope for overtaking was using the pitstops. Talk about a curse for the sport, modern aerodynamics of a formula one car is just too good and efficiĂ«nt.

DRS should not be forbidden but maybe in a different spot to create a different overtaking moment where the current DRS zone’s normally already give a good change for overtaking.

DRS is needed in formula one to prevent it from becoming as boring as 10 years ago. cause YES we saw some great overtaking moves, but you can sum up a entire season of great moments and racing in less then 30 minutes.

I was frustated with DRS also as I would have loved to see how much of a fight van der Garde (and the marussia’s) could have given to faster cars behind them. The Marussia’s moved to the back faster then Alonso could move to the front. But van der Garde actually put up a fight for them.

@psynrg yes, because some (@hohum does this I know) start from 1 and work up from there – I start right in the middle.

Basically, I’m just pointing out it takes something spectacular for me to dislike a race (like tyre blowouts in Silverstone or that horrible team order in Germany 2010), so anything below 5 would be unusual for me but not for some others.

No Max, I also start @5, 5= an average race, 6-9=better than average, 10=the perfect race, lead changing every lap, top 6 drivers all leading at some stage, lots of action also in mid and back field, podium covered by less than a tenth at finish. 4-2= unexciting to boring, 1= terrible, procession constantly interrupted by safety car, all passes happen in the pits or under DRS and everyone is nursing their tyres, could only be worse by being on an oval.@vettel1

@trublu after that though he really didn’t look like he was going to make much of a recovery. Mark’s a good driver but he was nowhere near Vettel today (and it wasn’t on a “car park” circuit so he can’t use that excuse).

Terrible race my lowest mark of the year surely. It’s a fantastic venue, my ‘home’ race as I’m only 200km from the circuit, it’s a magestic event but the racing we had this afternoon was poor. DRS spoiled the first part of the race and most of the few overtakes were ‘dirty’. Even the winner yawned, he surely could have extended his lead by another 5 to 10 seconds in the race.

I like the race but ‘not that much’ as would say RĂ¤ikkĂ¶nen. A low and kind mark, 6.

Not a huge amount of action outside of the DRS zones apart from some decent overtaking moves. There was some drama with the penalties and the crash, but we could’ve really done with a Safety Car intervention or rain to actually add some drama to the occasion.

To be honest, I enjoyed the race, it was a throw back to when F1 was simpler and the driver and machine that was best on the day, deservedly won the race and with a bit of distance as well.

F1 in my eyes is to find out who has the best car/driver out there for an entire season, not about entertainment… Although I did have a chuckle when Pastor took out Sutil, I’m still undecided about that particular incident, whether MAL dived for the pitlane or was pushed out in front of Sutil, either way, it ended Sutil’s race quite comprehensively.

Stats can be extremely misleading. I felt DRS really put a massive blemish on this race. I can’t believe they still haven’t learned that the entire Kemmel straight is far, far too long for a DRS zone.

Secondly, I have a theory in regards to the FIA’s view on DRS:

I think the FIA are keeping the long DRS zones to ensure drivers try to make more DRS passes than normal passes. The reason being, that these DRS passes are much safer, as the defending driver is helpless 9/10 times, and generally allows the DRS car through.

It works two-fold for the FIA. In their view, the crowd leaves happy that there have been some ‘overtakes’, but it also means less wheel to wheel action, meaning less risk.

@ecwdanselby I hear what you’re saying about DRS, except we saw some pretty great manouvres by Kimi at the corner with no name and the Bruxelles corner, as well as a couple of people going up the inside at the Bus Stop. This whole “DRS” is ruining F1, is getting a little old, because its an even playing field for all. It doesn’t favour any one driver/team, so as far as I’m concerned its apart of F1 like chicanes. Sometimes they’re implemented greatly, other times they’re off the mark, but as long as its the same for all, then its at least fair.

@dragoll, LH passing before the DRS zone only to be passed back in the DRS zone (Massa I think), next time round he nearly took the bait again but backed off and did the job in the DRS zone. Fair !? maybe, good racing !? no way.

Exciting first half of the grand prix, with some good battles, and not knowing the strategies which were going to play out. However, it kind of fizzled out towards the end, especially once Button converted to a two stop, which I’m still not sure why they did that, considering the worst they were going to finish was 6th anyway. I’ll give it a 7.

Sorry Spa, but honestly after the half-way point I got distracted easily (being on my PC and watching on a live stream) and, whilst leaving the window open on one side of the screen, I did everyhting else I could rather than watch the race.
When Kimi retired there was so little to watch that they showed him enter the pits, stop the car, get out, chat with his engineers and leave! Seriously, who cares? But maybe today that was the most interesting thing to see…
4/10 for the horribly dull DRS overtakes, for the certainty of the result much before the chequered flag, for nothing unexpected happening.

How many more races does that stupid thing have to completely destroy before its finally banned?
Its just getting stupid now this year as its been far too effective all year as the massive increase in # of DRS highway passes shows.

Don’t agree with the rating but absolutely agree over banning DRS – there were several occasions where drivers didn’t overtake at certain places because the DRS zones followed. Maybe it works on some tracks, but it was absolutely pointless here.

@jonathanproc, I agree, Hamilton would have been a sitting duck on the straight, so this was the best try. I’d like to see their onboard graphics of the overtake. Was Alonso able to hit the rev limiter simply by emptying his KERS? Did Hamilton empty his KERS in addition to the DRS, or didn’t he think it would be necessary? Was Hamilton’s top speed too low because of the rev limiter?

In any case, I found it very strange that Hamilton wasn’t able to get ahead of Alonso, as he seemed to have a near-perfect run on him. Would anyone have been able to overtake Fernando on the straight?

Hamilton had such low top speed on the long Kemmel that he never had any defense against Vettel even without DRS.

Then he tried to trick Alonso by letting him past in La Source hoping to get back past with DRS on Kemmel. Hamilton’s Mercedes wasn’t faster at all than the Ferrari even when Hamilton had the benefit of DRS. They simply had too much wing on.

@patrickl I don’t think it was that bad – the main reason why Vettel made such huge gains on Hamilton was he saved all his KERS (used none at the start) then got a really good run through Eau Rouge to pick up the slipstream instantly.

Well, that’s not “AT the start”. They can use it quickly after yes, but in this case that would be stupid because, as I explained already, there is no run to the first corner for KERS to be of any use and Hamilton was well ahead already.

I didn’t say 20 meters. Anbd then you make up some bs definition of your own? Start is the start. When the lights go. There is no distance. At best you could say it’s until they cross the line, but that’s for rolling starts.

Just stop making up nonsense trying to prove a point that was made up nonsese to begin with. Vettel did NOT overtake Hamilton because he was the only one to keep his kers.

Only if you only call the first 20 meters the start. F1 cars are traction limited when accelerating from a standstill so KERS would hurt, not help. Once the downforce increases, they can use their full power including KERS.

@vettel1 Hamilton used the majority of his KERS to defend as well. He only stopped using it after Vettel had passed him to keep it for later in the lap. So that’s definitely not “the main reason” Vettel gained on him.

5, quite boring race.
Great drives from the top 3 (as usual), especially Vettel.
Alonso and Hamilton also took everything out of the car.
Nice to see the top 3 drivers on the podium, and nice to see Hamilton and Vettel being friendly after the race.

Good to see Ferrari gaining some pace. But a very dominant performance by Vettel in a dominant car. Unfortunate that Webber was stuck behind Rosberg.

Just thinking that had Vettel not got past Hamilton in that first lap, it would have been the same case with him too. From where did he find that speed in the middle of the lap is confusing.

Massa driving a solid race to end 7th while disappointed for Kimi to have his point scoring run ended in a disappointing manner. Alonso will look to win Monza to close the gap to Vettel but a lot more is required from Ferrari to challenge RB.

Not a bad race, but not great either.
Firstly, Perez did NOT deserve that penalty.

I’m not convinced that Mark and Seb are driving equal machinery. Seb is better than Mark, but not 32 seconds better. Not to take anything away from Seb, he drove very well, and controlled the race for 99% of the 308 kilometres.

Eight. At least on par with the best races of the year, all it needed was some rain with ten laps to go to see the ferrari and mercs use their extra downforce to make a race for the lead, and it would have been perfect. Love spa! Can’t believe people saying it was boring! Loved it, and that’s from a ferrari man. Top drive from vettel, nice and smooth and controlled. Excellent from Alonso, some ballsy overtakes and very great race craft and start as usual.

Yes it was Greenpeace protestors trying to get on podium, they were protesting against Shell’s determined drive to drill for oil in the Arctic. A worthy cause but they have gone about it all wrong and shot themselves in the foot.

What a snooze-fest! Vettel overtakes for the lead 30 seconds in before escaping into the distance never to be challenged, classic GP2-ish driving from Grosjean and Maldonado, massive disappointment for Raikkonen too.

Great drive from Alonso though. Spa got a 4 from me – and that’s being kind.

@vettel1 – You’ve viewed it wrong, I’m afraid. Have a look again and you’ll see that Maldonado’s collision with Sutil was caused by Maldonado making a swerve for the pit lane. He then made a second move for the pits and totally wiped out di Resta. Taking two cars — two cars you’re not even realistically racing — out on your way to the pits? Not acceptable. Maldonado fully deserved a stop go penalty.

Valid points and I think what this raises is the idiotic placement of the pit entry. I recall Vettel nearly being hit by Schumacher for similar reasons last year – the pit entry should be before the bus stop.

6/10 seems fair for me. Even the mighty Spa can’t have repeats of ’98, ’00, ’08, ’09 and so on every single year it’s on the calendar.

That said, it wasn’t totally devoid of excitement. But it wasn’t an instant classic either. The battles lower in the grid weren’t insanely dramatic, but there were great drives for some drivers – Alonso and Ricciardo in particular, got great results from terrible grid places. The pile up was dramatic, but not a race-changing event. Derek Warwick and the stewards were throwing out penalties like crazy.

7/10, but this in my view is low… Boring because of DRS overtakes, made it too easy… Not just to Lewis… Although that was expected… But on the others, it was just too much… Vettel’s win did make the race boring, but that to me was pretty obvious given RB’s pace in the dry… It was boring, not much action occurred… Until Maldonado’s collision but… It was boring, but I don’t put this down to Vettel just leading… MAINLY: DRS, just get rid of it, or either balance it out… Overtaking last year was even “more overtakes” compared to “DRS overtakes”… The first half was good… Even though I am a hard Lewis fan I expected that he was going to struggle because Mercedes went for a WET WEATHER setup… But, really… DRS is just making things BORING… I was live timing as well…

/10, but this in my view is lowâ€¦ Dull because of DRS overtakes, made it too easyâ€¦ Not just to Lewisâ€¦ Although that was expectedâ€¦ But on the others, it was just too muchâ€¦ Vettelâ€™s win did make the race boring, but that to me was pretty obvious given RBâ€™s pace in the dryâ€¦ It was boring, not much action occurredâ€¦ Until Maldonadoâ€™s collision butâ€¦ It was boring, but I donâ€™t put this down to Vettel just leadingâ€¦ MAINLY: DRS, just get rid of it, or either balance it outâ€¦ Overtaking last year was even â€śmore overtakesâ€ť compared to â€śDRS overtakesâ€ťâ€¦ The first half was goodâ€¦ Even though I am a hard Lewis fan I expected that he was going to struggle because Mercedes went for a WET WEATHER setupâ€¦ But, reallyâ€¦ DRS is just making things BORINGâ€¦ I was live timing as wellâ€¦

Felt like a 3 but thinking about it there was quite a lot of interest away from the front, the was another stunning Alonso drive, and sadly for DiResta fairly dramatic prang at the bus stop.
A 6 from me then.
Shame that Vettel seems to be just to far ahead to be caught now. Without reliability issues he just had to keep finishing to win the title. Alonso and Hamilton will close the gap but not by enough to pressure Red Bull into making mistakes. The battle between ALO and HAM for second looks like being the interesting point for the rest of the season. I think they will both take wins over Vettel but in taking points of each other they will ultimately make his title victory easier.

6/10.
* Great drive from Vettel and Alonso but…
* Predictably brainless use of DRS ruining the beauty of Spa.
* Good battles further down, but at the front it might just as well be a time trial due to said DRS. When will this turd of a system end?

4 – Struggled to keep watching for most of the race.
First two laps were ok, a couple of interesting laps after the first pit stop but the rest of the race was boring and even a multi-car crash couldn’t bring any excitement to what was one of the worst GP’s I’ve ever watched.

I’m starting to think that Spa is very similar to Monaco. Both are extraordinary places to watch a Formula 1 car blast around the circuit, but both will rarely put on an exciting Grand Prix without the assistance of rain. Now that I think about it, I do struggle to recall the last time a dry Belgian Grand Prix was a thriller.

I gave this race a 4/10. This race was very comparable with this year’s Canadian Grand Prix. I felt like I spent the whole race waiting for something to happen, and in the end, nothing did.

I don’t recall finding that race particularly thrilling, though. Once Raikkonen had KERS’d his way past Fisi on the restart, he just held him at arms length for the rest of the race. It never looked like Fisichella had much of a chance.

Lots of potential, because I think the grid was set up for loads of exciting battles. GP2 and GP3 this morning showed that a race at Spa without rain can be extremely exciting, but I often found myself in the position knowing that the battle would be decided by DRS in the end. Hamilton admitting he let Alonso pass to get DRS was basically the nail in the coffin.

To be honest, I can look past a boring race: in the Schumacher era, I just loved watching the cars, hearing the sound, it just had a smell to it that I massively enjoyed. Formula 1 today feels way too clean, too scripted. Every aspect of it just looks coordinated, with the occasional Greenpeace protester adding a dash of unpredictability.

On a positive note, Spa-Francorchamps is magnificent. Such a beautiful track and environment. Unfortunately there is way too much run-off area, for instance at Eau Rouge, Stavelot, the unnamed corner, Blanchimont, Pouhon and la Source. If you saw the Porsche race this morning, literally every driver cut the track at every corner, but no one got penalized. Why Gutierrez was the only F1 driver to get a penalty today for track limits is a complete mystery to me.

Wondered about this too. @vettel1 – Brake check was the only thing that made sense to me outside of a botched stop. Surprised it got no coverage since Raikkonen was in 5th place (I think) before the stop and came out around 16th.

@vettel1 – Must have been bad timing and traffic on his stop because he lost 8 positions. On the lap charts Kimi went from 5th to 13th on laps 14 to 15. The average drop in positions for the first pit stops was closer to 5, even less for Alonso who only lost 2 spots on his first stop. I guess timing is everything.

The reason is for once ferrari timed alonsos stop perfectly, he wasn’t dropped back into a lot of traffic in either of his stops. Plus the only traffic he had to deal with, he did so promptly, whilst kimi was having a hard time overtaking anyone. I think lotus were expecting rain, as even with drs open, kimis car never hit the limiter. But his response and corner speeds were both very good. Kimi was struggling to match felipe near the end there, he’d catch up to him in sector two, and then felipe would pull almost a full second in sector three, making it almost impossible for kimi to even get a chance to pass. The drs also seemed useless on kimis car, another product of high downforce setup for wet weather, as felipe was hitting the same speed on kemmel, even though kimi had drs and a tow, and felipe was in clean air. Sorry bout the big answer, but I hope that helped you understand kimis lack of performance.

Spa always has the potential to provide a good race but seems to fail on the day. Just goes to prove that a straight race without incident, safety car, weather etc can only be called a procession of the top drivers and a slow caravan of the also rans. When the qualy times are so close in the top 12 drivers, how can the intervals be so dramatic after only a few laps, and then in the middle ratings, when a decent racing battle gets our attention the idiots with limited experience try too hard and take out a far superior driver. I was left sadly bored and unstisfied today.

The race wasn’t that amazing, especially for the lead. It was interesting to follow the midfield and where the backmarkers were, considering their grid positions.

Some good overtaking (Kimi on many people, Vergne vs. Hulkenberg, Alonso on Webber on lap 1), some bad (DRS is becoming increasingly tedious, Perez trying to force off Grosjean, Maldonado not using his mirrors) but I still enjoyed the first 2/3rds of it much more than most races of the 00’s. A 7 for me.

Thank you, I agree. I gave it an 8 too. Sad how many people expect a different winner at every race, constant lead changes, and then complain that drs is too powerful, despite a lot of overtakes happening after a battle for a few laps. I think people rate the race based on outside factors, like you mentioned, the championship standings, and based on how their favourite driver/team went…

Decent, but not a great race at Spa. Still, if I had a bucket list, going to an F1 race at Spa would be tops.

There was some decent action in the mid-pack consistently. Some good battles higher up even if not for the lead. Biggest disappointment, Kimi’s retirement and the end of his streak. Glad his apparent brake failure didn’t end in a worse way.

Good drives by Vettel, Alonso and Hamilton. Red Bull certainly had the right aero strategy for this race, but Vettel still had to drive it home. Hope Alonso or Hamilton can challenge him and make it a points race to the end of the season.

A pretty boring race..Once Vettel passed Lewis,it was a procession of his RBR..And with no rain to spice up things,it did not live up to the hype..

And the DRS made overtaking a joke…!!!Everyone with DRS behind easily overtook the front ones..I like DRS, but at tracks like SPA,where it has wide layoffs and track which makes overtaking easy,I would recommend only 1 DRS zone..2 zones made it too easy..
Because of this reason,the passes made in places where DRS zone was not there(Eg:- sector 2) seemed more entertaining than Sectors 1 and 3..
I would have given this race an 8 , had Kimi not retired from the race..Now,vettel is running away with title,with one of his 3 main opponents having a bad day..All eyes on 2nd in Drivers’ championship now..

DRS passes spoiled it for me. Seemed an ok race, but didn’t light any fires. Hoped drivers would be able to push harder, but that didn’t materialise. Still tyre saving and holding station. Not enpugh coverage of mid-grid backwards and their strategies, which would have been good to see drivers put out of position straightening themselves out.

i would rate it a 4-10 & one of the main reasons for this is the drs system which i have grown increasingly tired of.

i was open minded about drs when it was brought in but over the past few seasons i have grown tired of how easy its made things.
overtaking should be a core skill, thats one of the things that separates the great from the good & sadly i think the drs has lowered the skill required to overtake & therefore devalued the thrill of overtaking.

in past seasons you saw drivers like lewis hamilton, juan montoya & others pull off thuly brilliant overtaking moves & that made races worth watching & you could always see the skill of overtaking.
now all everyone has to do is get within 1 second, open there drs & they get driven past the car ahead with ease. you can no longer see the guys who are great overtakers do there thing because everyone is able to overtake more easily.

you look at other series like gp2, you see some great racing & brilliant overtaking there & you know the driver doing the overtaking had to really work for it & you really appreciate the overtaking you see because there all very exciting to watch.

in f1 with the drs now you see so much overtaking & so much of it is made very easy with drs that its not exciting to watch anymore, its all very tedious watching straght line overtakes with 1 car artificially made 10mph faster because they can drop drag while the lead car cannot.

i have been a long time f1 fan since the 1970s but recently i find myself losing some interest & the drs is playing a big part of that sadly. if the drs remains i may find myself turning off for good because i am no longer enjoying the racing & sort of overtaking is is producing :(

Terrible race for me. This season I have really fallen out of love with F1. After 20 years and plenty of live races I am just not remotely excited by the fake DRS racing we now have.

I know I am not like a casual viewer so will be in the minority but I miss the chess like battles that build and eb and flow. The anticipation can be so exciting, edge of your seat wait/willing something to happen. Yes some races you had to will anything at all to happen but when races were good, they were really good and real! If a car was out of position he could try and hang on, sometimes unbelievably. Fat chance now. So many battles robbed by DRS. I think we have given it a fair crack but it is so obviously not the answer I think I will switch off before they switch it off.

Your are right, they cant be using last years data. My guess is they are too scared if they go too short it would mean no passes at all so air on the side of having mind numbingly boring DRS passes instead

A 7 for me. While Vettel never looked under threat after passing Hamilton at the start there was still a lot to enjoy throughout the race for me. Alonso had another trademark battling drive that was highly entertaining, Button too was great to watch. Further down the midfield there was great racing from the likes of Grosjean, Perez, Hulkenberg and the two Force India cars. It was no classic, but still enjoyable.

A 6 for me – Vettel’s pass was too easy and reminiscent of the same situation in 2011 where Vettel went into a corner and had disappeared by the end of it. The way things are going Alonso may qualify 15th and have the optimal setup to win the race. Great performance by Alonso though especially with not letting Hamilton pass him.

@F1_Noob Well, the car passed the pole sitter after eau rouge as if he had DRS enabled and then went on to build a 1.5 second lead in the 1st lap. If you watch in 2011 I was literally stupefied at the way the RB pulled away in a corner which Hobbs also mentioned.

And in case anyone believes Mark Webber’s car is the same, it simply is not. It can’t disappear the way Vettel’s car does and build a 0.3 second lead over a single corner.

5.
I have this ”weird” feeling Kimi won’t be back in F1 next year…
Congrats to Red Bull Spa winner, even if grumpy Alonso on the podium was strange to see! Happy to see Vettel & Lewis getting along well, jokingly chatting & poking each other (Respect!)
Mercedes better update & fix whatever went wrong in their car for Monza. Lotus just lost it today. I didn’t get McLaren strategy; Perez =no comment… Maldonado is really ‘stubborn’ so it would be fair if the stewards could give him some ‘harsh’ treatment next time (Grosjean has been a target, not always for the good)
One month looking forward to this race but no rain to spice up things!? Yawn!

About your feeling about Raikkonen, you aren’t alone in thinking it. I mentioned on here a few months ago I thought he might not return next year but it seemed more likely will all the drives he’s been linked with. We will see anyway.

I think Kimi will be in F1 next season, just my gut feeling. Plus, he seems to be actively seeking a good seat for 2014. If Kimi is not in F1 next season, he will probably be the one least bothered by that outcome. He’ll find something to do that he enjoys.

I’ve seen some of the most beautiful overtakes of the year, especially on Eau Rouge. On the first lap, we’ve seen Webber and Alonso fighting each other at 290 kph at 20 cm of each other. Also Sutil did a great move on it. The 4-way battle Gutierrez-Maldonado-Sutil-di Resta was epic … until they collided :D Gutierrez, for the first this season, showed real pace for the first of this season. It would be great if he keeps improving like that and he can challenge Hulkenberg from time to time.

I’ve seen only 2 minus points: Vettel was never chalenged and the second DRS zone was too strong ;)

Gave it a 5; but actually think i’ve been a little harsh. drs was strong but not crazy with people who had setup their cars for straight line speed able to make big gains there but those that hadn’t actually couldn’t easily pass even with drs – eg kimi on anyone and ham on alonso.

Sutil had 2 awesome if scary passes on entry into eau rouge and kimi found some great overtakes in unusual places, which he had to due to his weakness on drs. His pass on Di resta at bus stop was awesome.

So actually i should probably given a 7…. i haven’t even mentioned the amusing 4 cars pile up!